The Digital Information Cascade and its Influence on Power Structures
https://www.ft.com/content/6973e6d6-d047-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6
Perhaps one of the most interesting phenomena to occur during the Trump presidency was the sudden outburst of sexual misconduct allegations that occurred in 2017. This left many people wondering, “Why are these scandals happening now? Why not when a progressive president sat in the White House?” To provide some context, prior to 2017, there were various allegations about Trump’s sexual misconduct from time to time, but there was no sudden outpouring of allegations such as what was observed in 2017. As a result, the article from the Financial Times claims that one of the factors that led to this outpouring of allegations was the digital information cascade, which has resulted from the internet creating an international cyber network. One after another, women were coming forward and claiming that Trump had sexually assaulted them in the past. As the counter-reaction began to spread around the U.S., more women began to feel emboldened to speak out against Trump.
The events surrounding Trump that occurred in 2017 are a perfect real-world application of information cascades in a network. As described in textbook readings, an information cascade is a phenomenon in which a group of people begin to make the same decision in sequential order. This is precisely what had occurred with the women involved in Trump’s sexual misconduct allegations. Moreover, because traditional political structures typically created a disincentive for women to speak out, the information cascade created increasing value for women to support each other’s allegations as a community. Therefore, each allegation was guided by some sort of information that helped every individual make the decision sequentially.
But perhaps the most important part of the application of this so-called “digital information cascade” is not in how information can be spread at lightning speeds, but more so due to how it has the potential to overturn power structures. As Gillian Tett writes, “cascades have power”.